Asterisk Replacement

[epluribusunix]

I have several installations of Asterisk, from large to small, and am nearing the end of my rope. I'm tired of software-driven FXO/FXS/PRI hardware and endless compiling of source-code. So I have a few questions for forum browsers...


1. How many people have switched from Asterisk to 3CX?

2. What version of 3CX have you switched to?

3. What is the reliability like in comparison to Asterisk? (system stability, not external provider issues)


3CX looks like an awesome platform (both at first glance and during testing), I'm just trying to figure out if it is truly a viable alternative.

 

[Henk]

It is a good product.

Here is my view:
- The basic like call routing and handling is good, it handles volume pretty good.
- Billing based on call records cannot be done as yet. But you can write a bit of code to make that happen.
- I heard that some installation are upto 1000 extensions, I would not recommend it but some do.
- Easy install, once it works it just works. No funny config files or other brain breakers.
- Does not need a dedicated server, it is very sociable and handles single installation on a exchange server.
- Compatible with most home and small business gateways for Voip.


Things I do not like:
- Support structure, but not a major drama.
- Because it is windows and very user friendly you cannot customise much, there is a ini file you can use but all is limited. (Unless you want to do some PHP coding).
- No main database stream support (appart from progress) would be nice to have more than one db support. Especially if it is windows based and most windows houses have SQL.
- Call assistant, it simply does not work from a useability point of view when you are a receptionist.
- Although there is an enterprise version, I do not think it is enterprise ready yet. It is good for small and medium.
- Being windows, it is prone for "attacks" hence it has to sit behind a firewall etc.
- Limited ability to configure the system at time of installation, it only asks for ADMIN credentials and Mail. Why it does not ask for more important config settings I do not know.
- Problems with dual IP addresses on the same box.


Why move from Astrixs:
- Because it is a great bit of software
- Social application, I have yet to find a scenario where it did not play nice. I have not installed it on a virtual environment simply because there was no need to.
- I simply works out of the box.


Hope this helps.

 

[rnoguera]

We are running Version 4 Alpha.
We have 12 extensions + 2 ISDN BRI.
Up to now we haven't had a single problem.
Even fax is working perfect across the 3CX. We don't use the integrated fax service, but a Brooktrout fax board connected to a ATA from Sipura using T.38.

3CX shares a 2003 Server with SQL Server, Mail Server, File Server and Terminal Services.

I think hardware plays an essential role in the final result, especially the gateways. We use Patton. They are perfect (as far as I can appreciate).
As phones we use Snom.

If you plan to use external extensions or VOIP acounts, then the router-firewall becomes critical. In the forums you will see a lot of people having problems with this. We installed a special SIP-aware router-firewall from Intertex and all this problems disapear immediately.

Compared to other products, it lacks some fancy features, but you can setup a system (of our size) very fast, is reliable and we feel more comfortable handling it and the underlying os that a unix box.

 

[archie]

Henk, your info is slightly outdated. Multiple IPs problems are solved long time ago. V4 since its early beginnig had it solved. Also, we're introduced 'Forked SIP ID' or 'Shared Line' since V4, so you may have several phones with the same extension number which will ring all as soon as you dialed that extn. number. Also, we've introduced a lot of small (and not-so-small) neat features in V4: bridged connection, automatic detection of external/internal state of extensions, added more codecs to media server, parking orbits. And even more features planned for upcoming V5: call recording, call/transfer directly to voice-mail box, phone provisioning, integrated VPN, etc.

 

[AldoLinares]

My personal feeling of 3CX it's that is a company that is growing and can compete directly with Asterisk in a near future, i think Asterisk has all the attention right now but i think that its good, the people that stay with 3CX it's going to grow with it.

Right now we are using 3CX on our offices and it's very good, its working fine with 20 extensions, 4 FXO, 1 VOIP Gateway.

Because it's a Windows based solution it needs to be slick all the way, because Linux has all the reliable background, i dont mean that Windows doesnt but you know the infamus BOD. I think it needs to start getting PCI cards to work with 3CX, and open a little bit the system so more developers can get in to it.

Aldo.

 

[Mori]

My motto is...

Why change something that works, unless you change it to something that works better...